Radiohead/ The Beta Band
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Morrison
June 20, 2001

MORRISON - Radiohead, the most revered rock band around these days, was scheduled to appear at the Ogden Theatre back in March 1996. The day of the show, the U.K. group's equipment disappeared.

According to drummer Phil Selway, "Absolutely nothing came back to us - we had to go out and buy a whole load of new gear. It was a bit distressing at the time, but no harm done in the long run ... "

Except to Denver fans. The show was rescheduled many months later - and, right before showtime, frontman Thom Yorke's voice went out.

Finally, the chance to see Radiohead locally was at a sold-out show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Wednesday night. The band has been reclusive, and its first North American concerts in three years mark the release of the enigmatic CD Kid A and its follow-up, Amnesiac.

These are albums for the headphones - the guitar-dominated sound has been obliterated by electronic preferences, and many songs don't have verse-chorus structures. So who knew how Radiohead would perform them for the masses?

But the Red Rocks show was divine, setting forth the rock 'n' roll heart pulsating through the machine-pop of the records.

From Kid A, the opening "The National Anthem" began with a throbbing bass guitar and aggressive percussion, with a single video screen showing arty direction of the live action.

For the rest of the 130-minute set, the band dragged everything from theremin to vibraphone to upright bass onstage to seep into the sound. Yorke, a small and wiry monkey man, sang/moaned the brillant, acerbic songs - "Idioteque," the pretty yet weary "Morning Bell," "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box," "Pyramid Song" and "Dollars & Cents."

Selway was terrific on "I Might Be Wrong." Rather than using a sequencer, he triggered sounds from the records on his drum kit, yet he played in real time for atmosphere. On "Everything in Its Right Place," Yorke's voice was captured as a sample and sent whooshing over the crowd as he turned and walked away from the microphone.

"Talk Show Host" (a B-side familiar to hard-core fans), "You & Whose Army?" from Amnesiac and "How to Disappear Completely" were offered as encores. The finale, "My Iron Lung," was a post-grunge blast of anxiety.

Radiohead isn't in sync with today's dumbed-down rap-metal bands. The members aren't afraid to appear serious - they're earnest, studious and middle class, not angry or wildly disaffected.

So there were fans of all ages at Red Rocks. Old-school art-rock devotees heard impressionistic soundscapes reminiscent of Pink Floyd. The young hipster types sang along to "Paranoid Android."

At a bad time for significant bands, Radiohead is reinventing the idea of the rock group. As 2001 nears the halfway point, here's the leading contender for concert of the year.

-G. Brown

Denver Post
22.06.01